According to Marlene Bourne, a senior analyst with In-Stat/MDR, “Venture capital funding in the first half of 2004 alone has already exceeded that provided in all of 2003, customer activity has increased significantly, existing MEMS devices continue to find new applications, and new MEMS devices continue to make strong inroads into the market. Even better, increased publicity about the sector and its customers continue to generate increased awareness of the products and their solutions.”

A leading custom chip supplier announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has awarded it a patent for its new eSilicon Access work-in-progress (WIP) tracking system. The patent provides for a WIP tracking system that manages and analyzes WIP updates from the semiconductor supply chain to reduce manufacturing cycle times and improve predictability of deliveries.